


Seven Jedi

by starforged



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Seven Samurai AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-26
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 02:06:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7871458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starforged/pseuds/starforged
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Rebellion never defeated the Empire. While Vader is finally able to rid himself of Darth Sidious, Luke is unable to turn Darth Vader from the Dark Side. The young Jedi barely manages to escape from the Death Star with his life. The remnants of the rebellion scatter to the winds and go back into hiding. Darth Vader names himself Emperor in place of his master, taking Force Sensitive acolytes and unleashing them on the galaxy. </p>
<p>In the midst of this chaos and the ruination of the Jedi, one leader continues to fight against the Empire and the Sith.</p>
<p>A Seven Samurai-inspired AU for The Force Awakens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The General

**i.**

“Oh, do excuse me, General, but Lando Calrissian is here.” A cold hand on her arm shakes her awake and out of the dream that had taken her under.

A dream where Vader had fallen and the Empire dissolved. 

Leia Organa blinks blearily up at C-3PO, shaking off the sleep. She hadn’t even remembered falling asleep, only that she had felt exhausted enough to sit on a couch for a moment. “He wasn’t supposed to arrive for another few hours,” is her mumbled response.

“I do apologize but--”

“I’ve been asleep this whole time?”

Leia groans, rubbing a hand over her face. What she wants to do is ask for a few more minutes, to settle herself, to collect her thoughts. To erase the dream from her mind, because it will do no good here. That’s not the reality that they face. 

Instead, she forces a small smile at the droid. “Well, don’t keep him waiting, Seethreepio. He’s come a long way to be here.”

Which she knows is exactly what her old friend is waiting to hear, because C-3PO barely takes a whirring step before Lando Calrissian sweeps into the room. He’s grayed gracefully, looking far more elegant than she feels as she pushes herself onto her feet.

Or attempts to. He’s there in an instant, cape flaring dramatically behind him as he extends his hand and helps her up. “Leia! As radiant as ever.”

Sometimes Leia wonders if he isn’t a bit Force sensitive himself, or if he’s just that uncannily charming enough to know what she needs to hear. There’s a quirk of her lips before she moves in for a hug. For right now, for a brief second, she is not the general. She is not the leader of a barely moving Resistance. She’s just a woman greeting an old friend when she has been alone for too long.

“You always did know how to make an entrance.” Leia steps out of his embrace and looks up at him. “Thank you for coming as fast as you did.”

“I’ve got a taste for the heroics, what can I say.” He eyes her for a moment, lips pursed. There are a million questions in his gaze, but they both know she won’t answer any that aren’t pertinent to the mission.

That’s just how she’s always been. Leia compartmentalizes. Brash teenage anger and horror and dismay has turned into a hard shell, carefully built. She has seen what the dark side has to offer, she’s tasted it. But she knows how easily someone can fall when they give in too much. 

And besides, she is far less important than the galaxy as a whole. One day, there will be time enough for herself. 

“Good, because I have a very important task to ask of you, Lando.”

It’s an insane plan. She knows it. He knows it, once he starts listening to it. Behind them, C-3PO fusses and whines a low robotic whine because the droid knows it’s insane. He’s told Leia on a number of occasions, actually. 

Lando takes a deep breath, rubbing his hand across his face. The act is so familiar, her heart aches. Han would do that too, sometimes, when he was thinking. Ben…

Ben would do it, imitating his father. 

She blinks the thoughts away. There’s no time for that, only time to fight. 

“Leia…” He doesn’t want to say it’s a bad idea without coming up with enough reasons to keep her at bay. It’s a good strategy; it’s perhaps the only way to defeat her. “There are no Jedi left.”

It’s the only reason.

It’s a damn good one.

“There’s me,” she says quietly. “There’s Luke.”

“Nobody knows where Luke is,” Lando points out.

Her brother, out there in the galaxy, no better than Obi-Wan and Yoda before him. As if exile is the only way to preserve one’s honor. As if the Jedi will truly live on if they’re in hiding. She’s hated it, hated every second of the poor excuses that have filtered through their bond. 

How will the Jedi return if they hide? How will the Force find balance if they don’t fight for it?

Her fingers curl in toward her palm, and she takes a deep breath. Her nostrils flare a bit when she breathes out. Anger isn’t going to help her now, and Lando doesn’t deserve to bear the brunt of her rage. He’s not wrong, and this isn’t his fault. 

“There are others,” Leia insists. “The Force is not _dead_ , Lando. Even if you wouldn’t call them _Jedi_ , there are Force users out there. Sensitives. Others who can be trained like Luke and I were.”

“Hmm.” He presses his lips together. “Fighting fire with fire is a brilliant idea, I’ll give you that. But say you find these Force users. They’re untrained. You can’t fight _Vader_ with untrained Jedi.”

“This isn’t a fight that can be won overnight. I’m thinking long-term. Darth Vader is strong, but he isn’t unbeatable.”

“Luke failed.”

She smiles, but this time it’s hard. It’s more teeth than lip, more anger than friendly. “Luke appealed to our father. I’m not trying to save a man who is long dead.”

Lando nods slowly, absorbing the conversation. He’s a reasonable man. Smart. There’s a reason why he was promoted during the first rebellion. He might think the idea is insane, but she hopes that he’ll also see it’s the most logical step forward.

Find Luke. Find Jedi. Defeat Vader.

“I don’t think I am the person who needs to find these Jedi, Leia,” is what he finally concludes. His brow is drawn as he looks at her with mild confusion. “I’m good, sure, but I’m no Force sensitive whatever you would call it.” He flashes those beautiful teeth of his in a smile. “But I do appreciate the nomination.”

She gives a dry chuckle and shakes her head. “I’m going to find them.”

“Makes a lot more sense. One question, the base--”

“Will be left in your hands.”

His mouth opens, closes. The brow furrows even more. He smiles again, loses it. Stares at her with a much more thoughtful expression. “That’s why I’m here.”

“My people are more than capable. And I realize you have not been as active as you once were. But I trust you to make levelheaded calls where these kids might be a little more… headstrong, we’ll say.”

“Ah, like you once.”

She mock glares at him. “Like me once.”

“Should we send you out when you’re the spearhead of this movement?”

Leia’s been asking herself this ever since the idea came to her. If she dies, does the Resistance die with her? It doesn’t matter, she concluded. She stays, they will still all die out. 

“There are some things, Lando, worth taking a risk for. If there’s anybody who can find my brother, it’s going to be me. I can’t trust anyone else with this task.”

He crosses his arms over his chest and sighs. “I never had a choice, did I?”

She presses her lips together. “No. I would apologize, but I’m not sorry at all. If we want to defeat the Empire once and for all, I know that this is the way to do it.”

It isn’t just that she felt right in the Force with this plan. Her instincts as a leader told her this was the right plan. 

“Well, you can’t go alone, Leia. And since you’ve decided I’m not going to go with you--”

“I already have a pilot in mind.”

\--

Poe Dameron is the best damn pilot in the Resistance. He has the ego to claim it and the skills to back it up. These are two very good reasons for why he was the only one in mind for her mission. 

Leia waits patiently for him to respond to her offer. Currently, he stares at her, eyes wide and eyebrows nearly at his hairline while the droid behind him whirs excitedly.

“General, you want me to come with you on a top secret mission?”

He’s asked the same question in the same way three times now. Leia’s pretty sure that she’s broken him with this. It brings a smile to her face, a small one that she’s able to hide easily enough. She doesn’t want him to think she’s laughing at him, and besides, she is trying to maintain a serious aura. He’s always looked up to her, ever since he was a boy.

That, maybe, is another reason why she thought of him first. He reminds her of things she didn’t want to remember but couldn’t let go of. It’s less important than the first reason, in any case. 

“I can’t tell if that’s an affirmative answer or not, Dameron,” Leia finally points out to him.

Poe straightens up in his seat. His posture says dedicated soldier, but his smirk says cocky. “Yes. I’ll be your pilot for this. Who else will be coming along?”

“It’s just us.”

“Hm.” He strokes his chin, closing his eyes and nodding. 

“Is this necessary?”

When his eyes open again, he winks. And then blushes, coughing into his hand. “Just a joke. I’m in, General Organa.”

“Good.” She pushes her seat back and gets to her feet. Poe follows after her.

“When do we leave?”

“As soon as you get a ship ready.”

“Destination?”

She looks away from him now, past his shoulder into nothingness. There’s a faint hint humming through the Force, her connection to Luke not yet cut off. He’s kept it open all these years, as if he’s always known he’d have to come back. Or that she would tear up this galaxy to find him when she needed him most. 

_Luke._

It’s only a second later before her body buzzes in response. 

_Leia._

She blinks and focuses back on Poe, waiting patiently for her. “Don’t worry. Luke will show us the way.”

The young pilot smiles. “I’m not going to pretend to understand how that works, but it’s handy. Come on, Beebeeate, time to get a ship ready.”


	2. The Apprentice

A long time ago, Leia had practically lived inside of a spaceship. Not just during the first rebellion, but after too. When her and Han had gone off together, they had slummed around in the M _illennium Falcon_ for a little over a year. It had been the most challenging, infuriating time in her life. She would have preferred being captured by Vader and held prisoner again than to live on a ship with _Han Solo_.

What she wouldn’t give to punch that insufferable nerfherder in the face or to see the inside of a ship that was as much hers as it was his.

The general slides into the co-pilot’s seat, a hot cup of caf in her hands as she watches the stars twinkle and fade as they fly past. They’re in a passenger class ship, not a fighter or a freighter. It is more discreet this way, and the room would be necessary when she finally found her brother.

“There’s not much out here,” Dameron comments. 

“That sounds like the point,” Leia says. She takes a sip. 

“I don’t know. If I wanted to hide somewhere, I’d do it around a bunch of people. Have you ever gone to Nar Shadda, General?” He eases the ship into an easy pace, before finally letting autopilot take over. 

Something about being able to relax makes her tense. The only people who know about her plan are herself, Poe, Lando, and a couple of droids. Even so, it feels like a series of cold fingers dancing down along her spine and up again. Her back is stiff, body rigid, but she forces herself to smile and continue sipping her cooling drink. 

This is what she’s worked at for years. Funny how she was terrible at a sabacc face when she was still in politics, and how she’s nearly perfected it as a military general. It’s her training in the Force, in what war offers, in the pain she’s suffered. 

“No, Poe, I can’t say that I have. I try to avoid Hutt trash.”

She’s been there, done that, and she doesn’t really think her body would look _quite_ as good in that bikini as it did some years ago.

“Tons of people, aliens, anything you can think of.” He leans back in his seat, dividing his attention between the windshield and her. As if he doesn’t trust the ship to be able to fly itself. 

Somehow, she wouldn’t put it past him. It makes her genuinely smile this time. 

“What you’re saying is that all this time, my brother’s been hiding out on a trash moon?”

Poe’s grin is disarming. “All I’m saying is, that’s where I would hide if I was trying to keep a low profile.”

Someone like Poe would. Not that she believes there’s something criminal about him, but that she knows he could get lost in so much noise and be okay. She doesn’t know a lot about the Jedi, but from the few surviving holos and stories her and Luke had been able to track down before their father caught up to them again, she knows that sometimes noise can be too much. 

Where Luke is, it’s quiet. Because he’s quiet, because he was raised in quiet. 

If they were going to search for anyone in the noise, it’d be her. 

Leia realizes something in that moment, during that train of thought. “You’re saying if we want to find a Jedi, we go to Nar Shaddaa.”

“Now you’re catching on, General.”

\--

The apprentice remains kneeling before his master for some time. It happens this way sometimes, where he will check in and Emperor Vader will fade out, as if he’s gone somewhere else. But he’s careful to keep those thoughts quiet and sheltered from Vader, as he’s always been careful. 

“There’s been a disturbance,” Lord Vader finally says. His mechanical voices fill the room, followed by a wheezing sigh.

Kylo Ren lifts his head, watching his master from behind his mask. He stays kneeling, his legs long since gone numb anyway. “I have felt it, too. Let me find what is causing this and prove to you that I am fit to be named your successor.”

Vader goes quiet again, but Kylo Ren can feel his gaze regardless. 

It’s an argument that he has made a million times since he was a boy. He takes on a task to prove himself, and Vader is never satisfied. Perhaps it’s the optimism that Kylo Ren feels, the need and drive to continue proving himself that keeps him from actually doing so. 

“Search your feelings, Kylo Ren, and you will know who is causing the disturbance.”

He tries to not react violently to what he feels in the Force. “I _can_ take care of this.”

“Don’t let her escape, Kylo Ren.”

The apprentice finally gets to his feet, wondering if he should bow or if he should run. “I will not fail you.”

The memories of his mother are vague, as if he’s dreamed of her more than anything else. But he knows who she is. General Leia Organa, former Senator, former princess of a planet that’s space debris now.

Daughter of his master.

He remembers her warmth and strength and the gentle way she’d stroke his hair. 

Vader rescued him from her long ago and raised him to understand the Force in a way neither Leia Organa nor Luke Skywalker could ever understand. This is a test, Kylo decides. Maybe not one set up by his master himself, but one the Force has given him. His mother has been well hidden for years, so to leave her base must mean something of great importance. 

He can’t fail.

He won’t fail.

“Captain Phasma,” Kylo Ren speaks into his comm. 

Phasma is quick to respond, her harsh voice filling the halls as he sweeps down it. “Sir?”

“Prepare a squad of your best troopers,” he commands. “And meet me on my ship as soon as you can. We have a mission.”

“Yes, sir.”

\--

Leia dreams of her son. 

In the dream, he wears the robes of a Jedi, lightsaber riding on his hip. There’s a weary look in his eyes as he stares down at her. “The Knights of Ren are even more dangerous without their leash, Mother. Underestimating is not a good idea.”

“I’m not underestimating them. I know very well what it’s like to be hunted by Sith.” She waves him off.

Her boy sighs, but it hits her that he’s not a boy anymore. He’s older and wears the scars of his time in the dark all too openly. Even still, his hair is still as unruly as it was when he was a boy, and there’s a flicker in his smile that could be mistaken for a trademark smirk. She reaches her hand out, cupping his cheek. 

“Very well, Ben. You’re the expert.”

“You almost sounded sincere that time.”

She wakes when her body is jostled in her seat, those cold fingers that had been walking her spine gripping her nerves so tightly that she twitches involuntarily. 

“Dameron, report!”

Poe leans over the console, his hands working as fast as he can manage, steering them out of the way of gun fire. “We’re under attack, sorry about your nap getting ruined.”

“Attack?” Leia presses her lips together, pulling up the reports on the ship’s status. That was the feeling she had been getting, why she couldn’t relax. All their cautions, and of course the one thing she had hoped wouldn’t happen did. “The Empire found us.”

“Oh, here I had hoped that Luke was just trying to chase us off with friendly fire!”

“This isn’t the time for jokes.” She unbuckles herself, gripping the chair as she stands.

“Forgive me for the disrespect, General, but you’re going to need to sit back _down_.”

“We’re not going to get out of here unless I can--”

“Leia, there are no _weapons_ equipped to our ship,” Poe reminds her. He speaks so calmly that if she couldn’t feel the waves of panic coming off of him, she’d have guessed that this wasn’t as big of a deal as it feels. 

She inhales sharply. That is a detail she had forgotten. No _guns_. 

“We need to get out of space now, Dameron.”

“Already on it. Hopefully we can do it without crash landing.” He licks his lips and looks behind him, and in a sharp voice, yells, “Strap yourself in, Beebeeate, we’re going to get rough in here.” The pilot looks at her with a look that reminds her all too much of the one that had been in her dream. “Same goes to you, General.”

Leia manages to get herself back into the chair while the droid whines loudly behind them somewhere in the ship. She’s got a feeling the little thing hasn’t been able to secure itself quite as well. 

“Where are you going to take us?”

“Looks like the closest planet nearby is Jakku!”

Her fingers dig into the arms of her chair as they take another hit. Lights flash in the cabin and a siren fills her head as warnings echo around them. They hit the atmosphere hard enough to jolt the both of them forward in their seats. The breath is knocked out of her as the seat straps crash into her breastbone with enough force to break a rib.

Poe curses up a storm next to her as he pulls the ship up. He stabilizes them finally once they’re in the planet’s airspace, and she takes a shaky, painful breath. The screeching of the ship doesn’t end but the panic that’s gripped her subsides a bit as Poe takes them down, down, until they land with only a few bumps in the sand. 

He bows forward, head on the steering wheel as he makes a pained noise that almost sounds like a laugh. “I am _the greatest_ pilot in the galaxy.”

Leia almost wants to melt in her seat, but instead she unbuckles herself and climbs unsteadily to her feet. “That you are. But they’re not going to just give up. We need to get going.”

Her ribs ache almost too much, but she ignores it. There have been worse pains, worse injuries. And if the Empire catches her, it’s all over before it’s even begun. 


	3. The Sacrifice

For a split second, Leia feels an inexplicable amount of hatred for the sand that has already gotten _everywhere_. The night air is almost too cold, but there’s still heat beneath her boots. Poe takes her hand and carefully helps her out of the ship, BB-8 at their feet. She reaches down to pat the droid on its spherical head casing. Even in the dim light, she can see a few dents in its armor from their attack and unscheduled landing. 

“We’re going to have to abandon the ship,” he tells her.

“I figured that the second we got shot,” Leia mutters. 

Poe gives her a tired smile before lifting his gaze to the skies. The Empire isn’t far behind. 

Leia knows that her son is on one of those ships, and there’s a sudden welling of sadness that threatens to wash her away before she swallows it whole once more. Not now. Now is the time for survival. 

“We will have to find an outpost and hope there’s a ship we can barter for.”

“We don’t really have a lot to sell or trade.”

She presses a hand to her ribs. “Then steal.”

Poe whistles, eyebrows raising as he eyes her. “You are truly amazing, General.”

She takes only her own lightsaber with her, carefully hidden beneath the fabric of her shirt. The metal is warm against the bare skin it touches, but it’s a comfort rather than an annoyance. They’re not going to make it out of here without a fight. She knows that. 

They start to walk in silence, heading for one of the larger, shimmering objects in the distance. Even the droid remains quiet, following between the two of them over the endlessly shifting sand. She pulls her shirt tighter around her, ignoring the way the cold bites into her skin. Getting closer is torture, but eventually the shimmering gives way to a solid form. 

They’re husks of old model war machines from the first rebellion. How weird, knowing that these relics are the things that are going to be their shelter from the Empire. 

Poe sighs, loudly enough to catch her attention. Leia’s never thought of him as a whiner, so she stops, watching as he pulls the small bag off of his shoulders.

“We’re never going to be able to outrun them.”

“Poe, I don’t need you to be a hero right now,” Leia says. She needs him. If she thought he was expendable, if she thought that she could go this alone without any assistance, she would have just left in the middle of the night on her own.

She’s good, but she’s not immortal. 

She’s also not crazy.

But this is bordering on it as Poe kneels before his droid, stroking the domed head gently. His voice is soft, but she can still hear every word. “Hey, Beebeeate. I’m going to need you to go ahead and take care of the general here for me.”

The droid gives a low whistle. It’s a mournful little tone. It bumps into Poe’s legs and then beeps a long series of notes. They’re promises and they’re pleas and they’re brave. 

Leia’s lips part, but she finds that she’s suddenly empty of words. This mission has already started, but it’s already falling apart. She feels like a failure. She feels like arguing with young Poe Dameron and smacking him upside the back of his head. He is to come with her and personally keep her safe and personally help her find other Jedi. Her shoulders straighten out, and she pulls herself up to her full height. It’s not much, but she’s not going to let Poe feel like he is marching off to his death. 

“The good news is that they’re going to capture you,” Leia says. 

Poe gets back to his feet, making a face at her. His nose wrinkles, and he runs a hand through his hair. “I just really hope that they have a dining service during my stay. I _hate_ when you get held prisoner and they give you old bread. Really brings a man’s morale down.”

Her lips purse, but she can’t bring herself to tell him off. “I’m going to come back for you.”

“Now that’d be stupid, Leia.” He hesitates before resting a hand on her shoulder, like he isn’t really sure if he’s allowed to touch her. She places her hand over his, the last little bit of comfort she could give him. “You’d just ruin my big sacrifice, and that’s not fair.”

In a way, he’s right. He’s giving himself up for her, so she can get away. But Leia has never been one to run away and leave someone behind. She played the long con with Jabba to get Han back. Breaking into one of the Empire’s ships to get back her ace pilot is really going to be no sweat. 

“I’m coming back for you,” she insists. 

He smiles and nods, his hand dropping from her shoulder. “Try to not let me sit in a cell for too long then. I get antsy and start thinking up crazy ideas.”

\--

Poe watches her go. If he doesn’t, he feels like she won’t actually leave him. Or maybe it’s more that he wishes she wouldn’t, that she has a plan to save both of their skins. But that’s why he admires Leia Organa as much as he does; she knows the right sacrifice when it comes to her. 

Her and BB-8 disappear after a few minutes into a sunny haze.

And he runs. Back to the ship that’s still smoking in the heat. Sweat clings to his body like a second layer of skin and makes him want to rip his clothes off to cool down. He’d rather be caught exhausted than naked by the Empire though. 

Poe sits against the side of the busted ship, draining a canteen when they arrive. 

Kylo Ren is a monster, as horrifying as Darth Vader himself. It sends a chill through Poe’s body, watching this creature walking smoothly toward him, as if he weren’t walking on sand. He’s flanked by troopers, but they don’t matter. The blasters don’t matter. It’s just him and Kylo Ren, a void staring back up at him.

Poe offers the flicker of a smile, letting his gaze rake over the Sith as if he isn’t on the very edge of being hideously tortured. As if he isn’t absolutely terrified. Deep down, of course. “How do you stay cool in the get up? You’ve got to be melting in there, right? Sun’s a little harsh out here.”

The feeling is unlike anything he’s ever felt before. He’s lost oxygen before, felt what it’s like to suffocate. This is physical, his throat closing up on him without warning. His neck feels like it might cave in, his bones disintegrating. His vision seeps brown at the corners, and the image of the monster goes hazy before him.

“The general isn’t here. She must have gone on.”

“We’ll find her, sir.”

The only hope he has is Leia’s words: The goods news is that they’re going to capture you. 

\--

She stumbles on a village in the middle of the desert, out of breath, out of water. BB-8 has been quiet for hours next to her, but she doesn’t mind the silence. Prefers it. It gives her time to figure out her next move. Rescuing Poe would be suicidal, it would jeopardize her mission. 

Leia knows she’s going to do it anyway. There’s the obvious reason that Kylo Ren, that maybe even Vader himself, will break Poe. He will be broken up and everything spilled out about her mission. And there’s the even more obvious reason: she can’t lose someone else. She’d never forgive herself if she did. 

A cursory glance around the village reveals no ships, but she’s hopeful. There’s a trading post on this planet. A couple, if she remembers her information correctly. All she needs is a ride, or at least a good direction to go in and some water. 

Her tongue is dry and useless as she tries to wet her lips, but she does it anyway out of habit.

“Princess?”

That’s a title she doesn’t hear very often anymore, unless someone is tripping over it and backtracking as fast as Poe did. Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise even as BB-8’s head swivels up to look at her and then at the old man shuffling her way. A few of the villagers stop in wonder as well, and while many go back to their business, a few don’t.

Her lips part to say something in return, but her throat feels like Tatooine’s surface. The old man realizes her discomfort, grabs a tin can and water from a nearby trough, and brings it to her with haste.

She hesitates. She can’t afford to hesitate because it’s water, but she’s still a princess, still a general, still has the mind to find something distasteful even if she needs it.

It’s a little like her relationship with Han.

Leia takes a grateful sip when the can is placed into her hands. But that first sip isn’t enough, and she downs the rest of water like she’s draining alcohol instead. “Thank you.”

“You don’t remember me, do you?”

Her tongue is wet enough now to run across her lips, providing relief. It takes her moment to reorient herself. The sun has been a lot. So has the sand. It dawns on her quickly, and there’s a flooding of relief that washes through her. Enough so to bring moisture to her eyes, to let her lose her composure just long enough to fling her arms around the older man. “Lor San Tekka.”

His hands are warm against her already warm back. “I would say that it’s good to see you, but I don’t suspect that this is a normal visitation.”

“I wasn’t even aware that you were here,” she says as she takes a step back. She is a general, after all, a leader. Time to act like it.

“I would have thought that Luke--”

It’s like a jolt of energy that moves through her. “Luke?”

And there it is, the faintest ping somewhere in the galaxy, where her brother is, waiting for her to find him. 

Lor San smiles sadly. “He didn’t tell you that he stopped here, a long time ago.”

“No,” Leia says with a shake of her head. “We have had no contact since he disappeared.”

Lor San folds his hands in front of him. The smile he wears now is more knowing. He tilts his chin, indicating the direction he turns to. “Come back to my tent. I have water and food.”

A smile curls on her own mouth. “And information?”

“I never could get anything past you, Princess.”

Leia lets him get away with calling her that.


	4. The Trooper

Shade from the sun brings an unbelievable amount of relief. The inside of the tent is still stifling, but at least it doesn’t feel like there’s a lightsaber continuously stabbing into her body. The water is refreshing, though. She leans back in her seat and drinks another long sip, eyes closed, enjoying the moment of rest that she hasn’t earned yet. 

When she opens her eyes again, reality sets in.

“You’re telling me that Luke left you a map?”

“A piece of a map.”

He left pieces of himself. A trail.

But none of those were with her.

Before she can feel angry, that tether that links her to Luke seems to ripple, as if he is trying to calm her. He didn’t leave her with a map because she’s already capable of finding him without it. This isn’t for her. This is in case others needed him.

She wants to feel impetuous for just a second. She has _always_ had the greatest need for him.

“I need it.”

Not to find him, but to keep it safe. For whatever reason, the Force has led her here. It’s also led Vader’s cronies here. Luke isn’t any safer than she is. 

“The moment I saw you stumbling in, I figured that you would.”

Her lips press together, first into a firm line and then they purse outward. “I’m in need of a ride as well.”

There’s a faint chuckle from Lor San. “We don’t have one here, but I know that Niima Outpost has a few you might be able to bargain for.”

Bargain. She has nothing to bargain, exactly, and her words might be worth gold but they’re not exactly _currency_. Stealing from an outpost. Even the idea sounds crazy to her, and she’s been through crazy in her time. 

“Is there a way I could hitch a ride?” She smiles as pleasantly as she can. “As soon as possible.”

“I didn’t want to ask, but what are you running from?”

_Why are you running?_ Is the hidden question he’s asking.

She can trust him, but she can’t trust the methods of Kylo Ren. There’s no harm in a warning, though.

“My previous ship was shot down by Kylo Ren.”

Her chest clenches tightly, almost taking her breath away, at the look that crosses her friend’s face. It’s one thing to see the faces of people who don’t know the truth. It’s easier to pretend that he isn’t anything to her when people spit venom from fear and anger and only know a mask. It’s harder when they know, when they changed a diaper or two, when they heard that sweet laugh when he was happy. And oh, he was a happy baby. 

Leia’s teeth grind together, her jaw clenching tightly. 

The look on Lor San’s face is pity and understanding all at once. “He’ll still be looking for you, then. You’re quite a prize for the Empire.”

“My bounty goes up 500 credits every year now, actually. Prize is a bit of an understatement at this point, I think.”

The laugh he gives is genuine and eases the tension in her body just a little. “Better that you’re not here when they come.” He gets to his feet with a groan. “And better the map isn’t either.”

It’s such a small thing when he uncovers it and places it in her outstretched hand. A little chip that doesn’t mean much of anything, but to her it’s the world. To her, it’s family, a wholeness that has been absent from her life for over twenty years now. Her fingers close tightly over the chip. It sticks awkwardly into her palm. Over two decades of loneliness is harsh, even for someone like herself. 

She’s as broken as this map is.

“A ride?”

 -- 

The troopers find out quickly that their target has already fled. It isn’t hard to scare someone into answering when a dozen white uniforms storm the desert. Behind his mask, FN-2187 keeps control of his breathing as the people cower in front of him. He holds his gun up, like Phasma has taught him, looking as intimidating as possible.

He hates it.

He hates every second of it. 

He can taste their fear on his tongue and feel it vibrate through his muscles. 

There’s always been something _off_ about FN-2187. Captain Phasma knows it. His team knows it, not that they’ve ever complained. They’re waiting for him to slip up and take his place. They’re a predatory bunch. 

But his hope has always been that a real field test will fix that part of him that doesn’t fit in. 

It doesn’t.

He tastes their fear and cringes from it.

They line them up, all the villagers in a row. His stomach twists painfully, and he’s glad that nobody can see him from behind the helmet that steals his identity. He’s going to be sick. 

Kylo Ren singles out an old man who he forces down to his knees. FN-2187 has already figured out that this guy is important, the others look up to him. There’s a tension that snaps through the lined up group the second he’s put down. 

“Where is she?”

“I’m sure I--” He cuts off with a choke. It’s Vader’s signature move. FN-2187 has seen it more times than he count. 

“Where did she go, old man?” Kylo Ren hisses. 

The old man is defiant, and the trooper knows that it won’t bode well for him. Defiance in the face of a Sith is just suicide. 

“You dare to hunt her down like she’s a criminal, as though you don’t care about what happens to her.”

Kylo Ren falls silent, and for a moment, FN-2187 wonders what’s going on behind that mask. Why does he pause? Why does he care? Why does the Emperor care, for that matter?

“So she did come through here. You will tell me everything you know.”

The old man doesn’t speak, but he doesn’t have to. Kylo Ren always finds a way to get what he wants, that’s what the other troopers say. That he uses the Force to find out things that nobody wants you to know. 

FN-2187 tries to quiet his thoughts, put them behind a wall where they can’t be found out. 

“I see,” the monster’s voice rings out in the silence of the desert. “Luke Skywalker.”

Fear is palpable now.

FN-2187 tries his best now to _really_ not listen. General Leia Organa is one thing, but Luke Skywalker? What are they after? What is he doing here?

“Captain Phasma, I need your men to search this planet.”

_Let it be me. Let it be me._

“Yes, sir.” His formidable captain calls out a series of numbers, and his heart sinks. She gives them directions and orders, sends them in groups of two. He will stay behind to see what horrors that Kylo Ren inflicts on this village. 

This might be FN-2187’s first time on a mission, but he’s heard the rumors. And he’s seen the way the monster has acted out before. 

Kylo Ren raises a hand, and with him goes the old man. His face goes red, and then a mottled shade of purple. His legs quake, his feet kick, and his hands go to his throat where nothing _physical_ exists. FN-2187’s stomach does another flip. He could have shot the old man, instead of inflicting this sort of punishment. It’s inhuman.

The man behind the mask looks over at the man behind the helmet. If they had faces, FN-2187 is sure that their eyes would have met and that Kylo Ren could have seen into every inch of him. But right now, he’s safe behind his walls and his helmet. The wheezing sounds of pain finally die down. 

There’s panic and screaming and crying. 

“What should we do about the rest of the villagers, sir?” Phasma asks.

FN-2187 hates her more than he hates Kylo Ren. She has chosen to be this way, accepted her position and the Empire and the atrocities that come with it. Kylo Ren was born a monster.

“Kill them.”

“Men, open fire.”

He doesn’t. He _can’t_. 

Kylo Ren stares him down again. Points a finger at him. “Send this one out on the search as well,” he orders. 


	5. By Design

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Carrie Fisher, who has been such a role model for me :(

Niima Outpost isn’t any more charming than the surrounding desert, but Leia supposes she isn’t quite here for vacation and the scenic atmosphere. She wraps a thin strip of cloth over the lower half of her face. It’s partially for protection from the sand, partially to help obscure her identity. She can’t risk anymore chances. There’s sweat and sand in places she wasn’t aware sweat and sand could, and her strapped-down lightsaber has been chafing her skin for hours. 

This is not exactly how she expected any part of this search to go. 

BB-8 rolls out ahead of her, uncharacteristically quiet for the little droid. It’s a heavy and painful reminder that a day out, and she’s already lost the only other member of her team. Droid not included, of course. 

“Alright then, Beebeeate, time to find us a ship we can negotiate for.”

The droid whistles up at her. 

“I’m fairly good at negotiations,” she says with a laugh. There is always the Force, but Leia doesn’t like to rely on it for something she can do just as well without it. She’s not above using it if she needs to, though. She just hopes that she doesn’t need to.

The search doesn’t start off well the pair. Leia knows there is a time limit pressing down on her. Time is running out not just for her, but for Poe, for the galaxy. These aliens don’t care. They don’t know. All around them is wreckage from the first rebellion, but it’s done nothing to spark something inside of them. They are here to survive. Survival doesn’t include helping out a too-inquisitive, well-spoken women and her fairly expensive droid. 

She can see that in their eyes and hear it in their clicks and grunts and silence. 

Well, it’s not like she’s never painted a target on her back before. 

Nobody has a ship to sell. Or one she can borrow. 

The droid does its best “I told you so” impression about her negotiations. At least it’s less annoying than the endless babble C-3PO would have spouted. The corner of her mouth flickers into a smile. She misses that nervous droid. 

“Hey. You, with the droid.” A young man flicks his chin in her direction.

Leia’s eyebrows raise up on her forehead. “Yes?”

“I might be able to help you with your problem, yeah?”

“My problem?”

His grin is not what she would call flattering or comforting. But she takes a step closer anyway and lowers her voice, to make him believe she’s interested.

“You need a ship. Nobody around here _really_ needs a ship, but I figure you’ve got some problems, yeah?”

She could work on her subtlety, she supposes. “Do you have a ship?”

“I work for a guy who has a ship. He’s willing to trade for it,” the boy tells her.

Trade? She has nothing to trade. 

“And what, exactly, does he want?”

“The droid is nifty.”

BB-8 dings frantically, its spherical body rolling in behind Leia’s legs. 

“No, thank you. The droid isn’t for sale.”

“Everything has a price.”

Leia knows that one more than she knows anything else, but she isn’t going to sell BB-8 to get herself off this planet. Poe would never forgive her. She smiles.

“Not me.” She begins to walk away, the droid keeping as close to her as possible without tripping her up. They’ll find a ship, one way or another. That’s all she needs, something that can be flown. 

A ripple moves under her skin, through her veins to alert her. She keeps her gaze forward, ignoring the low whine from BB-8. They’re being watched. They’re being followed. This isn’t the first time this has happened in her long life, and she doubts it’ll be the last. 

“Easy, Beebeeate,” she whispers to the droid. “I can take care of it if it comes to that.”

She’s sure that its response is definitely about her poor ability to negotiate. When she gets Poe back, she’ll need to have a talk about what sort of things he’s been teaching his droid. But she welcomes the distraction that comes from thinking about teaching BB-8 manners.

One of the thugs following her steps into her path. Leia doesn’t miss a beat, easily sidestepping around the alien. Her toe nudges BB-8 off its path to skirt around their pursuer as well. The thug looks confused for a second, but she keeps walking.

“Hey,” she hears a hiss. “Unkar Plutt would like to have a word.”

“I’m afraid I have a prior engagement and have no time to have a word,” Leia responds, tone flippant, bored. 

Another of this Unkar Plutt’s thugs steps up to her other side. They’re going to surround her. That’s obvious. She is a small woman, after all. Easily overwhelmed. What is she going to do against the likes of them?

The lightsaber at her hip feels more like a death sentence for herself than it would be for them. For a moment, a wave of anger sweeps over her. How easy it would be to get rid of them.

And how easy it will be for the Empire to find her. 

“Gentleman,” Leia says in a pleasant enough tone. She smiles brilliantly at them. “I’m sure we could come to an agreement that doesn’t require intimidation, can’t we?”

They look confused. Maybe it’s because she’s not cowering. Tiny woman, up against thugs of all shapes, colors, and species? She should be shaking in her sand-filled boots. She continues to smile instead, a placating sort of tug of her lips like she would give to a child she was scolding.

The looks she would have given her son if he hadn’t been stolen from her.

“Hey!”

All of them swivel in the direction of the newcomer, even the droid whistling low at the interruption. To Leia’s right stands a young woman, her face etched in a tired scowl. Her fingers hold tightly to the staff in her hands, her body stiff. She’s ready to fight. Leia doesn’t need the Force to recognize that from the girl. There’s something else, though, a tug of power that Leia recognizes inside of herself. 

Without meaning to, she lets out a huff of a laugh. 

“You think we are comical?” One of the thugs ask, taking his attention from the girl to the general now. 

“That doesn’t sound like me at all,” Leia says, tilting her chin so that she’s looking up. 

“You laughed.”

“I did say I didn’t find _you_ funny.”

He makes to swing at her with a giant fist. Leia takes a step back, more curious about what the girl’s going to do than taking him out herself. That staff rings out against thick skin, a stinging slap that echoes in sand. The thug howls and trips back over himself, right into one of his companions. They both go down. Leia smirks. 

The human who had approached her with the offer reaches for her now, dry hands on her shoulders like that’s effective. She’s been kidnapped by better. Her elbow drives back into his stomach, and she’s rewarded with an _oomph_ , with her body untouched, and with BB-8 screeching as it rolls in behind the man. 

“We should probably make a run for it,” the girl says, cracking her staff against the face of the big guy as he tries to get back up. His big body practically makes the Rodian under him disappear.

There’s no extinguishing of light, and Leia doesn’t know for sure if that’s a pity or not. 

She follows after the girl, the droid on her heels, with a cautious optimism. 

\--

The girl lives in a AT-AT. The sight of it, buried in sand, is a stark reminder of how _close_ they had come to winning. How close the Republic was almost free. There’s a darkness inside of Leia that squeezes her chest. 

She wonders how different it would have been if Leia had faced off with Vader instead of her brother. Would she have had the strength to kill their father? Luke thought that he could be saved.

Luke was wrong. 

“I haven’t seen one of these in many years,” Leia says softly. Her hand brushes the old metal, but she feels nothing from it. 

“Did you see them in action?” the girl asks. There’s wonder in her tone. They stand outside in the heat and the sun and the sand. Leia’s body aches, but she can’t ignore the way life blooms in the girl’s dark eyes. 

“I’ve helped bring a few down.”

Her eyes widen. She leans forward. “You were a _rebel?”_

Leia laughs. It’s such a simple title, free of all the other ones she has worn since her birth. Princess, Senator, Jedi, General. “I still am.”

There’s a darkness that clouds the girl’s face now, and she nods slowly, the three buns at the back of her head bobbing in unison. “Not a lot comes through on Jakku, but I’ll hear scraps of news of what’s happening in the rest of the galaxy.” She frowns. “You might as well come on in. Nobody’s going to come bother us out here, not even Unkar Plutt.”

Leia follows her inside of the metal husk. It’s not much, but she gets the sense of home in it. That feeling comes from the girl herself. BB-8 follows them inside and settles in next to Leia. She puts a hand on its spherical head in comfort.

“I would like to thank you for coming to my rescue,” Leia says. 

The girl shrugs. “You made yourself an easy target.”

“I’m usually better at this, but I’m in a bit of a rush.”

The crash, Kylo Ren, Darth Vader already knowing she was on the move, the map to Luke. It’s shaken her in a way that she hasn’t been in a very long time. Somewhere, her pilot is being tortured. And she’s trapped on a desert planet. But for all of the excuses she lays down for why she was clumsy, she just finds herself unable to accept them. She made herself a target, and with Imperial forces on her heels…

“It’s been a long day,” Leia adds. 

“I’m Rey, by the way.”

“Rey.” The name comes out softly from Leia’s lips, and she nods. It fits with the girl, her first find, her first bright light in this world of darkness. “My name is General Leia Organa, and this is my friend, Beebeeate.”

The air is sucked out of the AT-AT for a moment, or maybe that’s just how it feels from the sharp inhale from Rey. Leia waits for it, for the response that she’s sure to get. 

_“You’re Leia Organa!”_ If the girl could jump up, she would have. “You’re _real?_ ”

“Sometimes, I don’t think so,” Leia admits. Exhaustion is slowly starting to seep into her bones. But she can’t relax, can’t rest yet. There’s going to scour the planet for her. They’re going to check Niima Outpost, and they’re going to hear about the older woman searching for a ship.

“Why are you here, on Jakku?” Rey scoots a little closer in lieu of jumping, her eyes bright and desperate. 

“I am on a mission, but we were waylaid by the Empire,” Leia explains. “My ship was shot down, my pilot captured. I can’t be caught as well.”

Rey snorts. “Everyone ends up here on accident.”

Or by design, but Leia keeps that one to herself. The girl is still starry eyed over meeting Leia Organa; she doesn’t want to scare her with talk of Jedi all in the same day. 


End file.
